Extremadura has a landscape of rolling hills – remnants of ancient mountains that are in places rocky, with schists and granite boulders. Rivers have cut small canyons in this old bedrock. Small mountain ranges lace these lowlands like arteries under the skin.
Higher mountains can be found towards the edge of the region, mostly in the north (Sierra de Gata, Las Hurdes and La Vera) and east (Sierra de las Villuercas).

The dehesa

The most typical and special ecosystem of Extremadura has no English name, nor an equivalent outside southwestern Iberia – la Dehesa. Dehesas are open woodlands of Holm Oaks and sometimes Cork Oaks (or rarely ash). This is a semi-natural landscape. All trees are carefully pruned and scrub between the trees is cleared once every  few years. This gives the dehesa something of the ambiance of an orchard, but a wild and more extensive one. A dehesa stretches out for many kilometres in all directions. About half of Extremadura is covered with this landscape. Because of their size the more open dehesas resemble the African Savannah (especially in summer).
As an ecosystem, the dehesa is superb. It is home to a huge number of birds, reptiles and plants. Typical wildlife of the dehesa are Azure-winged Magpie, Hoopoe, Woodchat Shrike, Thekla’s Lark, Genet, Red Deer, Ocellated Lizard and a large variety of snakes.
Although the dehesa is, as a habitat, protected within the Natura2000 network, it was and still is agricultural land. Its land use is in itself of great interest as it, uniquely in Europe, combines forestry with animal husbandry (mostly sheep and pig rearing) and arable farming. Every once in 6-8 years, grain is planted in the dehesa.

Steppes

Like the dehesa, the steppes are a lowland habitat and are semi-natural, meaning that their openness is in part due to human influence. The steppes are vast expanses of grasslands, sometimes rocky or scrubby and always mixed with lots of herbs. Ploughed fields and plots of cereals alternate with the grassy steppes and follow a similar rotational system as the dehesa. The grassy steppes are grazed by sheep in winter, which are moved to the mountains in summer when the grass is depleted in the lowlands but at its prime in the uplands.
The steppes appear a dramatically empty landscape but their birdlife is very rich, with important populations of Little and Great Bustards, sandgrouse, larks, and raptors.

Low mountain ranges

The lower ranges are very different from the higher sierras. They are granite outcrops that rise perhaps hundred or two hundred metres above the plains. Most run roughly west to east and thus have a south and a north face.  The south-face is extremely hot and dry, while the north slope is a shady, wooded cool ‘oasis’.
These small but very wild ranges are a refuge for all sorts of wildlife. This is where the raptors breed that need warm, rising air, especially Griffon Vultures.

River valleys

The river valleys are mirror images of ranges with the land plunging sharply downwards in an equally abrupt and rocky manner. And obviously, rather than dry, the atmosphere is moist.
There are countless small valleys all over the region, but only a few have rivers both large enough to carry water consistently yet small enough to have escaped the 20^th century reservoir building. These mid-sized rivers are superb wildlife havens, with species of riparian woodlands, streams and, again, cliffs. The Black Stork is a typical species of these valleys.

Mountain forests and heathlands

The higher zone of Extremadura (roughly above 700 metres) is radically different from the lowlands. The people, the villages, the easy access to the land – are all different. The winters are less benign here, but summer is cooler than on the lowlands and the ground holds enough water to sustain the vegetation.
Olive groves, Chestnut groves and Pyrenean Oak forests are the dominant vegetations. The latter is the natural forest in this region. In the scrublands, various species of brooms and heaths replace the dominant cistus bushes of the lowland.
The mountains are the haunt of many plant, reptile, amphibian and butterfly species. The birdlife is more similar to that of temperate Europe.

The naturalist top 10

Ten highlights of your visit to Extremadura.

In terms of access, there are two sides to Extremadura. The lowlands (steppes, dehesas) are almost exclusively private land and can only be explored on minor roads and drovers’ roads. The car is here the most logical way of moving around. In the mountains the opposite applies. Here is an abundance of tracks and trails means access to the woodlands and scrublands on foot is easy and often preferable to driving.

The best routes, both by car and on foot, are described in our Crossbill guidebook on the Extremadura.

Sustainable tourism

Extremadura has changed from one of the poorest and least appreciated backwaters of Spain to a region that receives visitors from all over the world to admire the authentic and unscathed landscape and wealth of birds. In no small part, this is thanks to ecotourism.
Ecotourism is an important pillar of sustainable economic growth in the region and has succesfully been used to conserve wildlife sites (For example Monfragüe, which almost fell prey to Eucalyptus plantations, but locally initiated, international protests prevented this and now it is one of Spain’s most popular National Parks).
The pressure from tourism on the local environment is limited, but there are a number of things to keep in mind when going to Extremadura.

Do’s

• Buy local sustainably produced products from the steppes and dehesas. Ask specifically for this (producto sostenible, producto de la dehesa). Even when store or restaurant owners consider this a strange question, it is important that people show that they care where the food comes from (even in Extremadura, mass produced foods are cheaper than the local products of the dehesa).
• Support the local nature conservation initiatives, of which there are several (e.g. nesting facilities for Rollers and Lesser Kestrels, projects combatting illegal poisoning, etc. See the list of local organisations below.
• Learn what does and doesn’t disturb wildlife. Ground-breeding birds with a nest are much more vulnerable to disturbance than a butterfly that happens to visit a flower next to where you are sitting.

Don’ts

• Keep a low profile, especially in the steppes, where sandgrouse and bustards are easily disturbed. Stay in the car when exploring steppe sites.
• There have been issues of disturbance of nests by bird photographers. Don’t be a part of the problem. Instead, book a (private) bird hide to take some of the finest images of local birds.
• Respect property rights. Trespassing is not taken lightly in Extremadura (and other parts of Spain), especially when it results in the disturbance of cattle. Also, watch dogs and fighting bulls make trespassing in the dehesa a risky undertaking.

The book

The Crossbill Guides are the most comprehensive wildlife travel guides available. Each Crossbill Guide has in depth descriptions of landscape, habitats, geology and all the species groups, with links to the best routes where this can be seen.

These routes are typically a mixture of walking trails and car routes with stops and short walks. Combined, these routes cover all the sites for birdwatching, butterflies, dragonflies, plants, mammals and reptiles. They are also set out to give you the finest examples of the ecosystems and geological features. In short, everything for nature lovers.

The Crossbill Guide covers the entire autonomous region of Extremadura.

• 288 pages
• 24 detailed routes and 22 site descriptions.
• detailed information on landscape, ecology, geology, landscape history, flora and fauna.
• Where to watch birds information
• Tips for wildlife watching and finding orchids